With Tesco and other supermarkets scrambling to explain why some of their beef burgers contained almost 30% horse meat, this is a good time to reflect on the fate of all animals who are reared and killed for the meat, egg and milk industry.

Each year in the UK alone, approximately 1,000 million animals are farmed and killed for food.

Animal Aid started to film secretly inside Britain’s slaughterhouses in January 2009.

To date, it has filmed inside nine randomly chosen slaughterhouses and found evidence of cruelty and lawbreaking in eight of them.

In 2007, it was the first organisation to secretly film in an English horse abattoir. The footage they gathered showed the killing of apparently fit and healthy horses, shot in the head with a rifle and then butchered for human consumption.

All animals can feel pain. If you care about those horses who were killed for their meat, then spare a thought for other animals and make a compassionate decision: adopt an animal-free diet.

Emma Richards, Halland Road, Brighton